Woman tries to claim historic $67m jackpot winning with ticket she’d put through the wash

A WOMAN who thinks she cleaned up in a record lottery jackpot has a big problem — she accidentally put the winning ticket through the wash.

A WOMAN who claims she cleaned up in the UK’s biggest-ever lottery jackpot has come forward to claim her loot — except she partially ruined the winning ticket by putting it through the wash.

The British woman went to a newsagency in Worcester on Friday with a ticket bearing the winning numbers in the National Lottery’s £33 million ($A67 million) jackpot and explained that the barcode and date were illegible because she had left the ticket in the pocket of jeans she had washed.

The ticket could be the second, as yet unclaimed half of the UK’s record £66 million jackpot ($A137 million) drawn earlier this month.

The unidentified woman said she’d been “a nervous wreck”.

“I haven’t slept all night,” the middle-aged woman told The Telegraph.

“Since I found it in my jeans pocket, my daughter and I have been drying it out with the hair dryer.

“You can see 2016 but not the date. This [the Worcester newsagency] is one of only two shops I buy my tickets, and I remember coming in here the day or the day before [the draw] because I had to buy something else.”

The winning numbers — 26, 27, 46, 47, 52 and 58 — managed to survive the laundry unscathed.

The lottery operator, Camelot, asked the woman to send in her ticket so they could investigate her claim.

Camelot has already confirmed the winning ticket was purchased in Worcester.

However, a Camelot source told The Times “the bigger the win, the more people we have coming forward in the genuine but misguided believe they have the valid ticket”.

“But no date, no barcode, no serial number and all the right numbers? That sounds all a little too convenient to me,” the source said.

The newsagency’s owner Natu Patel, who has volunteered CCTV footage from his store to help investigate the claim, said he hoped it really was the winning ticket.

“I do hope it’s her,” he said.

“We’ve served this community for 27 years and we’re hoping to sell up and retire soon. What a wonderful, wonderful way to go out.”

Two tickets matched the record-breaking £66 million jackpot, which was drawn on January 9. The holders of the first winning ticket were David and Carol Martin, both 54, of Hawick.

Their win inspired some words of caution from the UK’s notorious “Lotto Lout”, Michael Carroll, who blew $15 million of winnings in 2002 on drugs and prostitutes.